Falter
by Avelister
Summary: Astrid's life is a mess, and when she is involved in a life threatening car accident, it only makes matters worse. He's her doctor, saving her life, and in the midst of it all, changing her life. Strong T. Modern AU. Bring your tissues.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! For those of you who know my Tumblr page, Avelister, know that I have been working on this for some time now, and am very happy to say that Its finally underway! **

**Just a fair warning, this story is going to be filled with a good load of angst, because, well, its my favourite thing to write. Also, there will be some pretty gosh darn dark stuff in this fic, so I'm placing it under a higher T rating, but not quite sure if it files under M rated. **

**That said, I hope that you all enjoy reading this fic! I love getting feedback on how you like it so far, or if you have a helpful recommendation on how I could make it better. Really guys, I can handle criticism, so don't be afraid to dish it out at me. I also love being messaged on Tumblr! I love writing drabbles, so if you have any requests for drabbles for me, don't be afraid to send them! That all said, I proudly present to you, chapter 1 of Falter! Enjoy!**

Falter Chapter 1:

Astrid sat casually at the edge of her roommates bed, feet dangling lazily, attempting to

block out Ruff's most not needed pep-talk.

"...But if you do, you should drop the kid before you leave."

"Ruff, I don't need this." Astrid interrupted, mainly peeved that her best friend was trying to convince her of this.

"Well, obviously you do, Hofferson! All Shane has done is practically ruin your life ever since you started dating him! I frankly don't even understand why you started dating him in the first place." she shook her head in slight disapproval. Astrid scoffed.

"When did you turn into one of those judgemental freaks?" Astrid commented, ignoring the dirty stare she received.

"I'm not being a judgemental freak, Astrid, I'm using reality."

Astrid let out a short laugh. "Since when did you start using reality? Cm'on Ruff work with me here."

Ruff rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up in the air in surrender. "You know what, I'm not even going to try!"

Astrid let out another short laugh before standing, walking toward where her tennis shoes lay by the door.

"Will you be at practice today?" Astrid asked, looking over her shoulder at Ruff while she mindlessly tied her shoes for the umpteenth time in her life.

"Do you not remember how I ate asphalt last week? My ankle is still all banged up. Coach told me to stay out for 2 weeks."

"I still cant believe that freshman was ahead of you the whole time. She was ruthless."

Ruff scoffed. "You would think a freshman wouldn't do that well in her first meet for the 300 dash. Iv'e been proved wrong way too many times this week."

Astrid let out a breathy laugh, standing and leaning herself up against the doorframe.

"Remember what I told you about Shane, Hofferson. Drop him before regional's."

Astrid rolled her eyes, glancing down at her feet. She closed her eyes almost too tightly and let out a pained sigh.

"He's nothing but bad news, Astrid, and you know it. Let him go while you can."

She let the words Ruff had said almost absently sink in. It had been true. Shane had been bad news from the beginning. But what was it that was keeping her with him? Fear? No. Hofferson's wern't the types to be easily scared off. It was probably the fact that everyone expected them to be together. He was the star of the Berk college football team, and she was leading runner in state with numerous long distant records. And apparently that gave everyone a right to find them 'perfect' for each other.

She does't know how she gets herself into these situations. Shane could be abusive at points, but only when he had been out at a party and come back to her dorm room drunk at 2am. She should blame him for it. It should be put on his shoulders for what he got himself into, but she found herself believing it was her own fault at points for why he came back drunk.

"...offerson. Hofferson!"

The sound of Ruff's voice brought her back into the crule swing of reality.

"S-sorry, I...totally got lost in thought there for a sec." Astrid brought a hand up and ran it roughly through her hair.

"You should go. Practice starts in 2 hours, and by the looks of it, you need a nap."

"I'm fine, Thortson. stop mothering me around."

Ruff laughed and pointed toward the door."Get outa here, Hofferson."

Astrid forced a smile before opening the door and stepping out into the too small hallway, closing it when she was out. it was so familiar to her now. With doors aligning the whole left side of the wall, blue and white striped wallpaper cover the right side of the hallways walls, it had all became so normal to her eyes that it didn't register in her brain how much it still reminded her of her room back home.

Normal as it was, she walked down the eerie hallway, soon entering the small room that contained two glass doors that exited the building. She pushed the door open with ore force than necessary, and stepped out into the frigid November air that could only belong to Colorado.

She had moved to Colorado for the purpose of their athletics system, and the director of the track and cross county team,who had personally taken the liberty to contact her about the scholarship she had been offered. But that was two years ago.

Now here she was. A state-wide know star athlete expected to go to the Olympics when she graduated. A mentally and physically scared woman who had been through practically hell and back.

Astrid walked down the stone walkway toward the parking lot, wrapping her arms gingerly around herself, conserving as much heat inside the thin sweatshirt she had put on. as she stepped off of the walkway into the street, taking quick, long and tiered strides toward her blue Toyota, trying to warm herself. she she go and take a nap before practice, she asked herself, but quickly threw the thought to the side and decided on getting a quick Starbucks down the street, even though she was against drinking coffee before running.

As she approached the truck, she pulled out her keys, pressing the unlock button on the control pad to the truck on her key-chain.

No sooner, she had left the parking lot of the complex, turning onto Bowman and heading off into the direction of the nearest Starbucks.

She soon found herself lost in though once again.

Thoughts flooded her brain. Thoughts of Shane and why she was always so anxious and uneasy when she was aroud him. Was it the way he had threatened her when she told him she would leave if he continued his abusive ways. But of course, it was Shane, so he didn't listen, and he continued his way. so maybe it was fear the kept her with him fear the he would find ways to keep doing the the things he did.

The more she thought about it, the more she did realize that it scared her. _He_ scared her. what he _did _scares her. How he would shove her around, occasionally slap her, or that time when he pinned her down to the bed, and he couldn't stop, _wouldn't _ stop. no matter how much she had screamed at him to stop, no matter how many tears ran down her cheeks, he _wouldn't _stop.

Astrid painfully fastened her eyes shut at the memory. She took in a fast breath, her throat tightening.

She was broken, and couldn't be put back together.

She hadn't seen what came next. She didn't notice the light change from green, to yellow, then red. She sped though the intersection at an alarming rate.

Astrid caught a glimpse of the car coming at her from the corner of her eye, and in a flash, the span of a few precious seconds, the impact of the other car hit her, and the last thing she remembered was hearing nothing but screeching tiers and crunching metal.

And her whole world went black.

**Wow! OK chapter one is done! I know, its a bit cliffy, but ill update as soon as I can. I don't have a schedule set in stone yet for updates, but ill work on it. **

**And yes, Shane (Snotlout) is a bad guy, I understand, but this story cant go where I want it to go if I didn't make it that way, so please don't be mad!**

**Ok guys! Please leave reviews if you feel so inclined, and follow my Tumblr, Avelister, to get frequent updates on how the story is coming along, and a bunch of other random crap! Hope you enjoyed, and until next time, peace!**


	2. Chapter 2

Falter Chapter 2

**I am SO sory this tookmeforever to get to you guys! I have finals and it was horrid but is OVER! So here! takethischapter and have your fun! I appolagize in advance for any typos or missing words you find. My table is hating me when it comes to editing. Alrighty! How you enjoy and don't forget to follow me on Tumblr to get updates on the story! My account is named Avelister. Until next time, Salve!**

Everything around her was Black, but she could still process what what going on around her. Her fingers felt like solid blocks of lead, mixed with the feeling of cement covering the rest of her body, while her eyelids were practically stitched together. She must be dead. God, _was_ she dead?

There were quiet muffled voices coming every so often from few directions, and a subtle beeping of a machine coming from somewhere. Were those normal things to hear when you were dead? God, she hoped not.

Astrid didn't understand what was going on, nor where she was, and that sent her into a panicked tail spin.

Her whole body seemed to lurch forward as she was brought out of her state of numbness and confusion. Her eyes shot open, and the panic set in. She started breathing heavily and her body shook at an almost uncontrollable rate. Astrid tried to sit up, moving her elbows under her body. But as soon as she attempted to lift herself, all too quickly to say the least, an afflicting pain shot through her spine and stomach. she cursed at the pain, but her words fell short when a pair of hands, firm but delicate, landed on her shoulders and gently began pushing her back down.

"Hey-hey,easy. It's ok, you're ok." An unfamiliar voice cooed to her. The hands that were on her shoulders had moved down to her upper arm and had squeeze ever so gently in an attempt of calm her nerves. "Calm down, it's all ok."

The fact that she had not one clue as to where she was, nor knew who was talking to her, didn't help with the process of calming her down, but the voice was calm, as well as comforting, and she took charge in herself and began to somewhat try and control her breathing.

Her vision started to clear as she began to wake further, she was slowly but surely coming back into her own body and out of the strange feeling of numbness.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" the strange, nasally voice asked her. And this whole time, she realized that even though her eyes had been open , she was in too much of a state of panic to even think about trying to look at who stood beside her trying to clam her.

"Where am I?" she managed to choke out, finding her voice raspy and dry.

Her eyes finally came up to fall on the stranger, and she fell stunned. His brilliant green eyes met her's, concern manifested into his eyes as he answered.

"You're in the hospital." He said, his voice coming off as if it were obvious. Obviously none of this was even in the vicinity of obvious.

Her whole body went tense, a shot of fear pulsing through her veins.

Her breath began to quicken once again, and his grip never slacked. "Why the hell am I in the hospital?" she breathed out, voice struggling. Her breaths were laboured, and she struggled with each intake of air.

His hands fell gently away from her shoulders, and he brought his arms up to cross them across his chest. "I'll tell you in a minute, right now miss I need you to clam down and do your best to relax; your putting a lot of strain on your back right now, and you're recovery time will double if you re-injure it." He explained, but it fell on stunned ears.

"Wait, re-injure? Why would I-? Ugh...Ok, ok fine. Ill relax." she exhaled a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. her heart stammered nervously in her , _why_ was she no nervous?

"If you're up to it, I'm going to ask you a series of questions." He stated, reaching an arm over toward a small table in the corner to pick up a clipboard that held an array of papers. He flipped through the first few pages, stopping to dig through his coats pocket and pulling out a pen a few moments later.

"Go for it." she said, words forced. She brought her hand up to her temple and prodded there for a few seconds, attempting to relive the invisible weight she felt was pushing there. she made a mental note to ask for pain relivers, even though she knew she was most likely already pumped full of them.

He looked up from his clipboard to give her a quick shy smile before he clicked the back of his pen, looking back down toward the clipboard.

"What's you're full name?" He asked, his pencil twisting around between fingers.

"Astrid Marie Hofferson." She replied, eyes trained on the ceiling.

"How old are you, Astrid?"

"22."

"Have you ever had any medical issues that you can recall?" He asked, eyes coming up from the clipboard to fall on her.

"Osteoarthritis." Astrid replied, flinching when the word fell from her lips. Should she embarrassed about that? The fact that she was one of the best runners in the state and she was suffering from osteoarthritis.

It was. It honestly was embarrassing.

The doctor sucked on his bottom lip, focused on what he jotted down onto the paper. his hand moved fast and diligently, most like someone who had to write salient information down as quickly as possible.

"What's your name?" She asked, trying to make the informal question sound less out of context than it really was.

His eyes found hers when he replied. " Dr. Haddock." he stated, giving a sheepish grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Astrid gave him one in return, then fixated her eyes back onto the ceiling. He hands were roughly clenching the sheets when another shot of pain shot through her back.

"Am I aloud to know what happened now?" she asked, squinting her eyes at him impatiently awaiting his answer. He looked almost fearful about telling her. Was it that hard of a question to answer? No. Did she actually want to know what happened to her? Well...

He sucked in a breath, much more unnecessary than he thought it was at the time, and slowly let it back out. "You were-you were in a car accident."

She was taken aback by his straight forward answer. There was no denying the fact that she had been in car accidents before, but never any that had landed her in the hospital, attached to machines and breathing shallow.

"I was...I was _what?" _ She stuttered. "Ho-How was it so bad to the point that it landed me in the hospital?" She asked. Her brain became fuzzy with the new realization and her fingers and toes twitched with anxiety.

"You were T-boned by another truck. From what the police report said, you ran a red light and that's when the other car came and hit you. He was going about 65 when he hit you, and the impact caused you to be thrown from your vehicle. Your back is whacked out of alignment, you broke your leg," He gestured a hand toward her leg. It was only then that she looked down from the ceiling and noticed the leg, purple and black peaking though the large cast.

He gave her an apologetic look before he continued. "Anyways, you also ruptured a kidney and had lost a lot of blood when you arrived, but we were able to replace the kidney, luckily without it failing, then we gave you a good amount of blood and they said you'd pull though." He gave another sly smile before turning back around toward where his papers lay.

Then it hit her. She couldn't run.

She felt hot tears welding up behind her eyes, but as always, refused to let them come to fall.

Her team needed her, and she had one of the biggest races of this season coming up, and what had she done? Gone and been reckless and gotten herself injured. What if this completely ruined her career? What if every time she ran all that it came to was discomfort despite the up-most contentment she felt whenever she ran.

"What's the estimated term for recovery?" she asked, voice unconfident and shallow.

"It varies in all honesty, and it depends on the patient. It can take from as little as 2 months, and range up to 6 or so months. It all depends on how badly it was injured and how much you actually let it heal. You're a runner, right?" he asked, fingers fiddling with the paper he held.

Astrid scoffed, fingers fumbling with a crease in the beds sheets. "Yeah."

"Well, in that case, I would estimate your recovery time to be somewhere near 3 or so months, only considering the fact that if you are going to be running as much as I think you are, the longer you give your bone time to set and mend back together, the better the chance is that you won't re-injure it. You could wait for 2 months, but there is no guarantee that you won't re-injure it. Even the slightest wrong step could cause it to re-fracture." He took a glance back down to his paper, still fumbling with the edge of it.

"Same goes for your back. depending on your stride sand posture when you run, you back is always at risk of being strained with a wrong step. So, considering what your back went through, your risk of injuring it while running increases. Even if it is re-aligned."

"So what your atempting to get at here is that fact that my career is pretty much screwed?" She asked him, agitation boiling in her gut. or was it fear of the unknown?

"That, Astrid," He started, placing the papers back down while leaning back on the counter behind him and crossing his arms across his chest. his words were determined when he spoke. "Is all up to you."


End file.
